The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on Monday strongly denied claims of a data breach after reports circulated on social media about alleged leaked overseas voting documents.
In a press statement, COMELEC Director John Rex C. Laudiangco said the documents being referenced in a “Breaking News” post by “Deep Web Konek” were actually public records that had been legally posted online in compliance with the Overseas Voting Act of 2013.
The documents in question pertained to Lists of Applicants for RERB Hearing and Lists of Approved Applicants from the 2013 Election-Year Registration Cycle.
COMELEC explained that these files were unrelated to the upcoming May 12, 2025 National, Local and BARMM Parliamentary Elections.
“The COMELEC assures the public that there is no data breach/leak,” Laudiangco said, adding that the commission has nonetheless launched an investigation into what it called a malicious imputation.
The election body bared that its cybersecurity measures, including an air-gapped system for the 2025 elections, meaning servers are not connected to the internet.
COMELEC also cited its internationally-certified Cybersecurity Division, which has reportedly thwarted millions of hacking attempts.
The poll body said investigation will be conducted with assistance from multiple agencies, including the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group, the National Bureau of Investigation, and private sector partners Meta, Google, TikTok, and X.
COMELEC last suffered a major data breach in 2016, after which it implemented enhanced cybersecurity protocols under National Privacy Commission guidelines.
Photo: royalty free stock image from Pixabay
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